Dark
by L. B. Frost
Summary: Stuck up, wealthy, young, beautiful: Elsa is all an aristocrat is required to be. A stranger crashing her father's ball one night sends her into one of the strangest meeting of her life, as the man leaps off the veranda, but somehow..flies. He comes back, perfect in everyway. TOO perfect. Something is very wrong with Jack, but Elsa may not be able to escape his love.
1. Party Crasher

They danced through the flickering of the candles. Her fathers friends and business partners, dressed as different creatures and monsters of children's stories and mythology, a slow violin waltz echoing through the house, her own boredom unabated as she sat on the bench outside the ballroom, watching with disdain.

Elsa was only 19, but old enough to know bullshit when she saw it: none of those people were enjoying twirling in circles like a music box. They only did it for show, social class status on display for all to see beneath a layer of tacky jewels and rhinestone.

She sighed, and looked up at the stars, glittering brightly amid the dark layers of clouds doing their best to blot them out, a full moon winking now and again from over the mountain tops, the waters of the fjord a mirror, reflecting this double like a dream.

She laughed, and shook her head: since when was she such a poet?

" The party appears to be dull. " A voice said.

Startled, she jumped slightly, the boy walking out of the shadows of a nearby pillar, the light of the ballroom reflecting off his mirror-covered Death's head mask, his cloak and suit a rich velvet. dark as the clouds above.

" Yes. Quite. " Elsa replied stiffly, glancing off the veranda to the still water of the fjord again. This man was not on the list: a crasher, and one daring to dress as the Death's head no less.

Nothing she cared to associate with.

He smiled, and sat besides her, even as she moved as far to the side as the bench would allow her.

" The night is very beautiful. " He said, but his words were nearly drowned out by the next waltz, this one with lyrics.

_" Dance me into the night, underneath the moon shining so bright..."_

Elsa stiffened: the singer's voice was beautiful.

The man was watching her, possibly wondering why she was reaction as she was.

Finally, Elsa couldn't hold back her tongue.

" Sir...you're not on the list, and you were not invited to this party. Guests were required to put their costume down, and no Death head was listed. You should leave at once, and there will be no trouble. "

The man smiled, and pulled the mask off. Elsa tried not to admit the boyish face with its hollow cheeks, pale skin, and somehow silvery white hair was very handsome. This was a commoner, she could tell by the face, the skin tones...

Royals didn't tolerate paleness: you were required two hours in the sun daily, whether you liked it or not.

This man was...was...

" Jack. _JUST _Jack. " He extended a hand: the nails were clean and trimmed, but showed signs of wear. This man was no aristocratic gentlemen only using his hands to count soft bills. He was used to hard labor.

" I don't care if your name is Sally...you are crashing a party sir! Leave at once. "

Jack stood, a smirk on his face. " I'll come back..when this is all over. " He said, waving a dismissive hand at the ball.

Elsa gasped as he climbed up onto the railings of the veranda, the wind ruffling his hair.

Glancing back, he tipped her a wink, and jump off, the mask fluttering like a kite to catch in a bush near the doors.

She raced to the railings, but there was no sign of a body on the rocks below, nor of blood.

She though she saw something flying off a few feet away, but it was gone by the time she looked over.

Shaken, she went back into the ballroom, and didn't speak to anyone for the rest of the night.


	2. Nightmare

That night, Elsa dreamed of the man.

As she tossed and turned, her mind conjured up a ballroom, but not the bright, lively ballroom of her home: _THIS _room was dark, light only in the very center by an large chandelier, candles the exact colour of dried blood spluttering in a draft in it.

Dripping echoed in the silence, unearthly, and much too thick to be simply water.

Something splashed her face, and her fingers came away stained red when she wiped at the intrusion.

She opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out, not a sound, as if her vocal cords had been severed.

A cold hand touched her, stroking her cheek with soft nails and biting touch. She flinched, stepping back. Her cheek stung where the fingers had touched, and a light probe showed her the skin had been sliced through, her cheek red.

She gasped, as a soft noise echoed through the chamber, as the hand returned, taking hers in fingers that were as cold as death.

A tango, demented and loud, off key and terrible, blared from nowhere, as she found herself dragged around in a facsimile of a dance, each step perfect and forced, her body controlled by another's will.

She was twirled, dipped, and at one point tossed high into the air, the hands catching her with ease, the only light getting dimmer as first one,then another candle blew out in the draft, the unseen orchestra launching into an on key waltz of darker tones, a woman trilling in a high overtones to piano and violin.

" Let me go! Please..." She whispered, terrified to find her will was not controlling her feet, her body no longer her own.

A voice, as sensuous as a lover and as grating as dirt answered her from the darkness: " If you want out...there is only one way."

" I..I desire out. "

A face leaned into the light, a feral, awful face with side-slitted eyes and a bat like nose.

Teeth flashed, and she knew no more, awakening with a scream.

She grabbed her throat, pain flaring: her fingers came away red.


	3. Crescendo

The next day, Elsa stayed in her room mostly, saying she had a dreadful migraine, but truthfully scared to let anyone see the marks on her neck.

She'd concluded the dream and the bites were unconnected: It _HAD _ to have been a bug bite, or perhaps she'd broken the skin herself scratching her neck during the night.

Whichever the cause, they refused to scab, and she could only stop the bleeding by lying down. She passed in and out of dreams and fancies, and the day passed blurrily, her sister coming in with dinner around 5 p.m

" Elsa..try just a biscuit... you need to eat. "

" Anna...please...I can't..."

She was left alone once more, and fell into fitful rest, and as she rested, the dream resurfaced.

The room was different, a large entrance hall. A dozen candles spluttered in jar lids all over every and any available surface, and a soft dripping echoed faintly. The room appeared to have no entrances, or ways out, only a large, ornate stone staircase, railless and beautiful.

Against better reasoning, she pulled her skirts over the tops of her feet, which remained bare in the world of the dream, and started up, breathing heavily against the dank air of the room.

The stairs leveled out on a balcony, which ran the length of the hall and beyond, a dark, seemingly endless hall going far off to the distance.

She kept moving, her breath escaping in light clouds, the air terribly chilly, her thin night dress hardly keeping her slender shoulders from shaking, her light bosom from heaving.

" It's just a dream, it isn't real.." She whispered to herself, as her foot came down on something soft. With a cry of horror, she realized she'd stepped directly in the wrenched open mouth of a human head, the eyes staring blankly at her.

She started running, skirt tearing on something and leaving a fluttering strip behind as a souviner, her gasps for breath echoing back to her again and again, her feet slapping the stonework, another cry tearing from her as a glass shard pierced the skin.

She ran into the ballroom from before, but now the terrible tones of Camille Saint-Saëns's _Danse Macabre_ echoed through the room, as sixteen couples swayed and waltzed in the gloom, easing in and out of the light, their faces grotesque masks of skulls and rotted flesh: a dance of the dead indeed, as none of these dancers had breath to spare.

She turned away, covering her mouth in horror at the wave of nausea, but cold hands took hers, as a seductive, grating voice whispered to her. " You've come back to me..."

" I..I haven't come back to anything. This is a dream..."

She was whirled away, forced into the stench of decay as the music reached peak.

" Why do you believe it is a dream?" The voice whispered, behind her, as known as a lover and as dark as midnight. The stench of blood was on the speakers breath.

" I know who you are. "

" Do you?"

Elsa couldn't keep the tremor from her voice. " You're the man from the party..J..Jack."

" Possibly.." The voice hissed, as she was dipped and twirled in time to the music.

" Let me go...please.." She whispered, knowing it meant nothing.

" Why would I do that?"

As the music reached climax, she shivered as the face leaned in, and pain pierced her throat, followed by a rush of pleasure.

She then knew no more: she faded into darkness, and the dream ended.


	4. Fighter

The next night came too fast: weak, pale, Elsa could barely stand, and was kept up in her bed all day.

Anna read to her, and Elsa didn't have to the heart to tell her the vampire story she was reading from was a highly inappropriate thing to listen to in her condition, but simply listened to the lull of Anna's voice, not the words she spoke, dozing in and out during it.

She finally slipped into darkness, and woke up in the castle again, able to stand, unsure of dream or reality anymore.

The echoes of the waltz came from, down the hall as before, but this time Elsa took off running, racing headlong down the steps, skirt pulled over her feet to avoid tripping and killing herself on the stonework: if she failed at her plan, hasty as it was, all was lost for her.

Reaching the ground floor, she ran to a pile of rubble she remembered from before, in the other dreams... or visits, as she was worriedly beginning to think these little explorations to the castle were.

She fell to her knees, a shard of glass scratching her hands as she rifled through boards, a dead rat, and burnt out candles.

She found in, glinting dully in the light: a shard of metal, long and crooked, the end sharply barbed.

Gripping it, her blood staining the metal a dusky red, She went up the steps, and screamed down the hall. " Come and get me, you beast! I'm done with you! Do you hear me! Face me like the man you are not!"

Noise behind her: she whirled, brandishing the metal shard: Jack stood there, leaning causally against the railings and picking his teeth with a long, bloodstained nail, his face passive and human.

Elsa took a breath, swallowing all her fear. " You let me go. you let me go _NOW_. "

Jack sighed. " Put down the toy, Elsa. It won't help you. "

" NEVER!" She screamed, rushing him with a cry, jabbing at him.

It struck, slicing his cheek, which bubbled and sizzled, ooze the colour of decayed flesh pouring out.

His face turned animatistic in a second, as he snarled.

" Stupid BITCH!" He roared, slapping her hard, sending her off-balance.

There was nothing she could do: Elsa went flying, all hope of stopping herself lost as she went over the rails to the stone floor below...

* * *

**Authors Q/A:**

**So Jack is a vampire in this story? I like the picture of Jack as a vampire. Did you make it or found it somewhere on the internet**

**He's supposed to be, but more like a classic Dracula monster than a Twilight vampire. **

**I made the picture myself: my friend does renders, and sent me a few. I used a photo-editing system to make it specifically for this story.**

**STORY ON HIATUS: My computer crashed, and all my files to this are gone. I am however posting a new story to keep me busy on this very much banged up laptop until I get my new desktop, and can system restore my old hardrive. **

**Sorry for the delay. :( **


	5. Fight To Die

When she awoke, it was darkness, and she felt bedding beneath her. The illusions were gone, their purpose served. The bait had been laid, and the mouse was caught.

The question remained of what the cat was going to do to her.

She tried to sit up, but pain rocked through her shoulder, making her bit her lower lip and hiss in pain. Feeling it in the dark, her fingers came away wet, and she knew the gash was large.

She looked around: only the palest moonlight came through a shattered window, the room she saw a ghastly wreck, bloodstains of a century ago splashed across the walls.

" So you've woken... my sleeping beauty. " A voice whispered, lush, deep..erotic...

She flinched, but lay still, knowing fighting at this point was all but pointless.

" Why?" She croaked, her voice raspy, throat dry.

Gentle finger probed her neck, and sudden wetness made her flinch.

" Why what?" The voice trilled, water running down her skin as the unseen hands patted her gently with a wet cloth, cleaning the gash.

" Why me? " She swallowed: her throat was very dry.

" It matters not the reason, only the cause and effect. "

She sat up, grabbing the hand in hers, digging her nails in as hard as she ably could, feeling them puncture cold skin.

" Don't give me that shit. Tell me now, or I'll kill you. I know how. I...I.."

The voice laughed, and a tongue appeared, licking the blood away. " Feisty girl. "

A slap threw her back onto the bed, cheek stinging. " None has killed me these three hundred years, why do you think you are any different? I am immortal, I have no weakness. "

" That's not true. " She rasped, smiling.

Feral red eyes flashed for a second, then vanished. " You dare defy m.."

She moved too fast for him: an upper thrust with her arm drove the spike into his eye socket, the orb within squelching, her second punch knocking the air from him.

" STUPID WENCH! YOU SHALL PAY! " He hissed, the wrenching the spike free. Gore and gristle hung from the socket, the beautiful face marred by an animalistic, feral glare, teeth bared, skin hanging loose, the true age of him showing through.

" Never! " She screamed, ducking her head and head butting him directly in the groin with all that remained of her strength.

He groaned, falling to the floor with her in a heap. He punched her, head rocking back from the blow, blood bursting in her mouth.

A flat palmed smash to the upper bridge of his nose broke it, sending foul ooze pouring free.

Her father's lessons in fighting rushing through her mind, she sideswiped his face again, this time cracking the nose to the side.

She broke free of his grip, and tried to crawl away, but he was on her, grabbing her ankle and sinking his jagged fangs into her flesh above her high heeled boot.

She screamed, kicking him hard, half of that brutal animal face caving in on itself.

Free, she dragged herself, bleeding from freshly torn shoulder and foot, to the iron spike, and sat up sharply as he came behind her, sending it through his heart.

For a beat, there was nothing, as woman and monster stared each other in the face.

The animal face melted, the face she knew from the party, ruined and destroyed of all beauty, returning. Through gore streaked lips, he whispered two words, and fell forwards with her, dissolving into ash.

The room spun, and as darkness over took her, those words echoed over and over in her mind.

_" Thank you. "_

**Finally on a WORKING computer. Hope this chapter doesn't feel like a let down in her suddenly knowing how to fight: it's a set up for another chapter. Trust me, Elsa's troubles are far from over.**

**Reader Questions: Thank god you are going to continue this story again. You are amazing author. I got a question how was the first day of school for you?**

**Ah..uhm... Not in school currently. Long, unneeded story short, I don't start college until next year. **

**And yes: i'm back, and i'm going to get this story done. I brainstormed, and have great ideas for this story, and a sequel story set a few years after... well, no spoilers. **

**Thanks for reading. :)**


	6. A Moment's Peace

She awoke to the trilling of birds, her head sore from being pressed to cold flooring.

She sat up, the room fuzzy, waiting for her vision to clear.

The dust had settled next to her, a nasty burn mark scorching the carpet the only reminder of what had occurred the ( Night..? Day? ) before.

She gasped, and yanked her skirt up to the thigh, searching the skin for lesions: nothing. The bite area was smooth, nothing at all.

She must've imagined the pain. There was no bite. Nothing. No mark, no lesion.

Odd.

Standing, she stumbled against the wall, regaining her balance as she walked along a dank hallway, the floor slick with water that had seeped through the ruined roof above.

The whole castle was a ruin: with its master dead, or whatever passed for death with the vampire, the castle was dying as well, the glamour gone, the reality now on display.

The doors were open, and she passed through unhindered, limping on sore feet down the rough stone of the walkway, free, alive.

The sun was rising, and she stopped to look at it, amazed she'd lived till dawn.

A bright beam sparked through the trees, and she stood, eyes closed, in its warmth, knowing she was in no danger: all vampires feared the light, and she felt no pain or burning.

The road went on, desolate and still.

A long journey, possibly, but one that had to be done. She'd survived the horrors of the castle, of the monster, of the nightmare that had been the dream world of the dead.

Walking was hardly going to be an issue.

**Reader questions: Nice chapter! But... Are you trekking us that Jack Frost is now dead?!  
In case I'm mistaking something, I do apologize for my lack of understanding xD  
I just Need to know O.O**

**Yeah, pretty much. Jack and Elsa are very much out of the typical character here, and Jack as a spirit is gone. Not to give away anything, but another will be coming on scene soon. Elsa's worries are far from over. And sorry this one was short: I really needed to finish the Elsa-in-the-castle part to move the story on. **

**Thanks for reading! :D**


	7. Watched

Through the streets of Arendelle she walked, knowing people were staring, and not giving a damn: she was here, she was alive.

Nothing else mattered to her.

She padded carefully up the castle's steep steps, her bare feet sore and bleeding from the walk, the skin bruised. She felt no pain, oddly, and thought nothing of it, as she finally came to the great hall, skirting the main ballroom and dining hall to sneak as quickly as possible up the stairs to her own bedroom in the North tower, the climb not as daunting as it usually was.

Once in her room, she sighed, allowing herself to bonelessly fall on the sheets, mud be damned, falling into a dazed rest, her thoughts racing, crazed, the image of Jack's gruesome death still imprinted on her mind.

She awoke long after darkness, tucked into bed, dirty as she was: Anna. She'd always covered for her when she'd gone out late with boys to taverns or parties. Elsa sighed as she sat up.

" I hardly even deserve her as a sister. " She whispered, shocked at the grating rasp of her own voice.

Wearily, she walked into the massive bath, running the water for her to bathe the layer of blood, grime, and decay off her.

The dress was ruined: massive tears crisscrossed it from the fiends rough nails, blood seeped the lace edges and gilded sleeves, and most of the pearl buttons were smashed.

She lowered herself into the water, gasping at the heat, then closing her eyes to bask, ducking under it to rinse her hair. Most people didn't have running water, but the castle had special pipes from the river and boilers to allow a tubful a week, used only for special occasions. Wooden tubs were used otherwise.

Elsa reasoned surviving a vampire attack was enough to be considered a " special occasion".

Drying herself off, she noticed her body was a bit thinner than before, the muscles of her arms more defined, her breasts slightly higher on a flatter belly.

Malnutrition, she figured.

Dressing in a clean nightdress, she laid in the bed, but did not sleep at all. The night seemed heavier than it normally was, and rest was gone for her.

She sat on the patio all night, watching the sky, and smelling the scents of the night, only retreating when the sun began to rise over the edges of the mountains.

The light stung her eyes.

_The figure had been watching all night, as the girl moved about the room, smelling of the late Lord Jack's castle. The figure hissed, teeth as sharp as daggers and twice as deadly glinting in the night, eyes a inhuman red glowing. _

_It sought the safety of its coffin at sunlight, but the vampire did not rest easy, as thoughts of its late brother pierced sleeps veil, allowing no rest. _

_The fledgling would soon turn: it had already begun. _

_She would come to him soon enough. _

_In the confines of his coffin, Jackson grinned, and finally slept, knowing his brother would be avenged._

**Reader question: Thanks for your answer xD I'm looking forward to read the plot-twisting facts!**

**Hope that last one was good enough for you. Elsa's troubles are far from over. **


	8. The Drawing of Blood

The next day was bad: Elsa spent it all in bed, sleeping off a weariness she couldn't escape.

She rested all day, never waking from a dreamless doze, her hands crossed on her chest.

Anna peeked in on her once or twice, but left feeling spooked at the awful pallor of Elsa's normally clear face, the skin sallow and white.

Elsa did not awaken until long after nightfall, when hunger drove her from her bed, a gnawing ache in her gut.

The night mist drifted gently over the lawn, as she eased open the doors of her balcony, watching the moon rise.

A bird was resting on the ledge besides her hand, and she idly picked the little animal up, petting its feathers: a dove, probably an escapee from the coops. She held it in her hands, feeling its warmth, its soft breathing and cooing showing it had no fear.

With a twist, Elsa broke its neck, the bones wrenching free as she tore it off.

It was in her mouth before the reality of what she'd done had set in, as, with horror, she threw the corpse from her, wiping the awful flecks of gore from her mouth... licking the remaining drops from her lips, closing her eyes at the rush flowing through her whole body.

The blood...

Warm...sweet...

" Dear god, what is happening to me?"

**END OF THE DARK CYCLE PART 1**


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